We are a partnership of local organisations who have years of experience working with families and young children. Most importantly, we’re working with local parents and carers to find out what needs to change if we are going to give Southend’s children the best start they can have.

This year we are focusing on how to give children a healthy start in life so that they get ill less often and there’s less risk of them having weight problems when they’re older. We want to help mums stay healthy while they’re pregnant, and find ways for young children to enjoy a balanced diet; because the benefits of a getting good start stay with a child for a lifetime.

How will we work?

Parents and carers are involved every step of the way: raising the problems that need solving, coming up with some answers, and helping us test good ideas. You can find out more about how we want to work here.

If we’re going to create a change that lasts long after A Better Start is over, we need to learn from everything we do. That’s why every project we support starts out small and is tested, improved and tested again until we’re sure it works for our local community. We are working with families in six local wards – Kursaal, Milton, Shoeburyness, Victoria, Westborough and West Shoebury. Eventually, the things we learn here will be shared across the whole of Southend.

Changing lives:

Over the course of A Better Start we want to make a difference in three important ways:

Diet and nutrition: Children need a healthy start in life. We want all of our children to enjoy the life-long benefits of a balanced diet in their earliest years.

Social and emotional development: Children need good relationships with people around them. We want them to grow up in loving families so they can make stable relationships in future.

Communications and language: Children need to be able to use speech and language confidently. We want to develop these skills so children are ready to do well when they start school.

Get involved with A Better Start Southend

We need everyone in Southend to get involved if we are going to succeed. We want as many people as possible to share ideas to improve services for Southend’s young children and families. Sign up to find out more and give us your thoughts on what local families need, and how we can help make sure they get it